Prosecutor's Husband Accused As Drug Dealer

FORT LAUDERDALE — A Broward prosecutor's husband has been busted as a suspected drug dealer in possession of more than an ounce of cocaine, nearly a pound of marijuana and 21 prescription pills.

The day he bonded out of jail, she filed for divorce.

Anthony Mercer, 35, has been married to Elizabeth Scherer-Mercer, 33, a prosecutor in the Broward State Attorney's Office, since May 4, 2002.

Mercer, a contractor, also is the son-in-law of Bill Scherer, a prominent Fort Lauderdale attorney, sometime developer and Republican Party fundraiser.

After his May 21 arrest in the Fort Lauderdale warehouse where the narcotics and pills were found, Mercer admitted to police that he had packaged the drugs for distribution and said it was "basically paying the rent," according to an arrest report.

The next day, Mercer bonded out of jail for $22,100 and his wife filed for divorce.

A spokesman for the Broward State Attorney's Office said the couple had been separated for three months. They have a 3-year-old daughter.

Scherer-Mercer did not return a call seeking comment Wednesday. She has worked nearly eight years for the State Attorney's Office and prosecutes crimes in the career-criminal unit.

Last week, Chief Assistant State Attorney Chuck Morton wrote Gov. Charlie Crist asking him to assign a prosecutor from somewhere else in Florida to handle Mercer's case "to avoid any potential conflict or the appearance of impropriety."

It was unclear Wednesday who Mercer's attorney was.

He faces eight felony charges - one count of trafficking in cocaine and seven counts of possession of unlawful controlled substances - and one misdemeanor charge for possession of drug paraphernalia.